CH 19

“He said my voice is beautiful… he said he likes it…”

What does it feel like to hear praise from someone you like?

Ye Yixing had never felt so easily moved before. His mind went blank, and the cells on the surface of his brain rapidly divided, aged, died, and regenerated. His soul rode on a high-speed train across fields, through forests, drove a torpedo into the depths of a lake, and burst out of the surface of the sea, gracefully and gorgeously, spreading its wings and floating lightly towards the blue sky…

“So come out already,” He Yanlu said.

“No!” (=￣ω￣=)

The other’s resistance successfully triggered He Yanlu’s psychological fixation. Although he had secretly fantasized about Xiao Hei speaking human language… but damn, reality was too much like a fairy tale! Since he said he was Xiao Hei, why wasn’t he willing to come out? Didn’t he say he wouldn’t mind?

Hearing the rustling sound inside the door, He Yanlu didn’t show any intention of opening the door. He leaned against the bathroom door, gently and cautiously saying, “If you are my Xiao Hei, I will accept you no matter what, whether you are a cat or a cat demon (= =)…”

Ye Yixing was a bit shaken. At this moment, his silly He Yanlu was only separated from him by a door!

“Really won’t mind?” Ye Yixing asked hesitantly.

“Really! I promise… come out.”

Ye Yixing slid down and leaned against the door. Even if he had to face it, he would wait until the last moment and accumulate more courage.

“Not coming out.”

(=￣ω￣=) “Come out already!” He Yanlu’s seduction failed, and he yelled at the door.

Ye Yixing’s back was pressed against the door panel behind him, and he reached out to touch the collar around his neck, feeling extremely sad. “You see, you’re already angry with me before I come out…” So if I do come out, you’re going to hit me with a frying pan or chase me out with a broom.

“… ” He took a deep breath and continued to coax, ” … Xiao Hei …”

“Hmm.” Without any fur left to stand on end, Ye Yixing shivered as he asked, “What’s up?”

“… Daddy will make fish for you to eat.”

He Yanlu’s voice was soft, but it gave Ye Yixing a foxy feeling…

Ye Yixing wanted to laugh, but the current situation made it impossible for him to do so. “There is no fish in the fridge,” he muttered. This fool doesn’t even know how to lie properly.

“… ”

Then Ye Yixing heard the sound of slippers clacking on the ground, and He Yanlu seemed to have brought something back. He continued to lie on the door, eagerly saying, “Come out and play catch with Daddy, Xiao Hei’s favorite!”

Ye Yixing was at a loss for words, desperately trying to hold back his laughter but still feeling sad about the inevitable “confession” that was to come.

“No.” He didn’t like playing with the string ball at all. It was clearly something He Yanlu enjoyed.

He Yanlu’s fur stood up again, and he scratched the door panel, shouting, “If you don’t come out, I won’t recognize you anymore! You, demon cat! You’re not my Xiao Hei, my Xiao Hei is very obedient!”

Ye Yixing covered his face with his palm, listening to He Yanlu scratching the door behind him. He really wanted to rush out and hug him, but what about afterwards? He would never take any risks that could potentially make the other person hate him. His courage had rolled away to Kunlun Mountain and frozen into ice!

“… He Yanlu …”

Suddenly, a low, magnetic, and familiar voice came from inside the door. He Yanlu immediately fell silent. For some reason, when he heard his name being called by the other person, he felt a strange stir in his heart. Shouldn’t he feel unfamiliar…?

“Do you believe me?” Ye Yixing asked with a bitter smile, thinking about how to explain the beginning and the end of the situation to the other person.

He Yanlu was silent, struggling internally. To believe or not to believe?

It would be a lie to say he believed at this moment. Normal people wouldn’t accept this kind of bizarre phenomenon, right?

“If you really are Xiao Hei, then I’ll believe…” He Yanlu leaned against the door and said.

“I am Xiao Hei.” Ye Yixing immediately responded. He felt his body go weak and he leaned against the door, feeling uneasy about the impending judgement.

“…I mean, it’s nearly impossible for me to immediately accept the idea of a talking cat,” He Yanlu explained, carefully considering his words.

“I know.” Even as someone with strong acceptance, it took the speaker some time to come to terms with becoming a cat that night (= =).

“To be honest, I’ve always thought that you were too smart for a cat…”

“…” Even as a human, his intelligence was exceptional.

“You can understand me and always seem to grasp my meaning. I always thought it was because you were my cat, that you were so intuitive.” He Yanlu slowly slid down and leaned his back against the door outside of the bathroom.

“…”

“Remember when Chu Wenxing came over that day and said you were Ye Yixing…?”

“Mm…” Ye Yixing’s heart raced as he perked up his ears, eagerly anticipating what He Yanlu would say next. However, his consciousness began to slowly fade, as if he had just finished running a marathon and his entire body’s ATP had been depleted…

“Although what he said was ridiculous, I suddenly thought, ‘if only you were human…'”

“Mm.” (= =) What does “ridiculous” mean?

“The night before last, I had a dream where you took on human form…living with me, talking to me, always by my side, and I felt so happy…”

“Hehe…” I can always be by your side if you want.

Ye Yixing buried his face in his knees. If He Yanlu knew that he was Ye Yixing, would he still say these things to him? To another man…

He seemed to have not realized that when he was Xiao Hei, he was also a male cat.

He Yanlu continued to chatter on, and in a daze, Ye Yixing heard the sound of his bones cracking and popping. He could no longer hold on and everything went black…the bell in his hand clattered to the ground…

“What happened to you?” He Yanlu nervously knocked on the bathroom door, but received no response.

Ye Yixing did not immediately lose consciousness. His body was simply too exhausted to speak a single word, but he took comfort in the fact that he was now back in the form of a cat, lying by the door.

Being a black cat was good, as long as he was loved by He Yanlu.

When he opened his eyes, Ye Yixing realized he was being held in the arms of He Yanlu. It was as if the previous events of reverting back to a cat and feeling unsettled were just a dream. It wasn’t that turning back into a cat was bad… it was just not time yet.

“Give me a little more time…” he prayed earnestly in his heart to the mysterious black cat that appeared in his life.

Squinting his eyes, he looked at his “regained” father He Yanlu, who was staring at him with a worried expression.

“I broke the door,” He Yanlu said.

The black cat blinked.

“I was hoping to see a naked person, but instead I still see a cat. I should have broken the door earlier…” He Yanlu grumbled.

“Why does it have to be a naked person!?”

…

—The words he wanted to say just blurted out from his cat mouth!!

…

Huh? Ye Yixing was shocked by his own voice, he had turned back into a cat again!!

Equally dumbfounded was He Yanlu: “Y-you, you spoke!!”

“…I just spoke a moment ago,” Ye Yixing tried to stay calm and secretly delighted in his heart. Oh great cat god, I bow to you!!

“You weren’t a cat just now, but now you are. No, I didn’t see the cat speaking earlier, but now I see the cat speaking… oh no! Why am I speaking incoherently…” He Yanlu explained anxiously and bit his tongue in frustration.

Reality was right in front of He Yanlu, more convincing than any explanation.

“I absolutely cannot let anyone know that I, a cat demon, can speak and turn into a human, otherwise…” Ye Yixing suppressed his laughter and said seriously, “I will die!”

He Yanlu was stunned and nervously touched the black cat in his arms. “I won’t say anything, nobody will know.”

“Chu Wenxing can’t know either,” Ye Yixing continued to threaten.

“Okay, he can’t know…” He Yanlu promised cautiously, as if mentioning one more person would cause his little black cat to gasp for air and be taken away by the gods, “Only I know!”

Ye Yixing secretly chuckled in his heart. Rarely did he see such a reaction from He Yanlu, he didn’t want to stop there, and greedily wanted to see more of the other’s affectionate expressions. So he pretended to be pitiful and said, “Daddy, you won’t abandon me, will you?”

“How could this be… I was so happy that my Xiao Hei can speak…” He Yanlu giggled foolishly for a few moments, but then felt that he was undermining his “dad’s” authority and pretended to put on a serious face. “Even so, you cannot avoid punishment! Wear the bell! Add two more days!”

As he spoke, he grabbed the bell on the bedside table and, regardless of Ye Yixing’s objections, put it on him. The speed was so fast that it was obvious he wanted to cover up his previous loss of control, but the smile in his eyes betrayed his pretense of seriousness.

Ye Yixing silently submitted to the punishment and took the opportunity to ask, “No matter how I change, you won’t abandon me?”

He Yanlu caressed the black cat’s head, his expression gentle. “Hmm, I won’t.”

Curious, he touched and prodded the black cat all over, then blurted out two words, “Alive.”

“What?” Ye Yixing asked, puzzled.

“A cat that can speak, and alive…” He Yanlu’s eyes glittered. “It’s so amazing…”

“Do you like it?” Ye Yixing set a trap and waited for him to fall into it.

“I do,” He Yanlu didn’t disappoint him. “I like it very much.”

Ye Yixing stuck out his tongue and licked He Yanlu’s fingers as he caressed them. “You said earlier… that you dreamed of me turning into a human. What did I look like?”

“Black hair,” He Yanlu tilted his head and thought for a moment, then said, “Green eyes.”

(= =) That’s just a cat’s version…

“Okay, actually the person I turned into just now didn’t have green eyes, but black eyes,” Ye Yixing twitched his whiskers.

He Yanlu immediately pouted and said, “Don’t talk about him!”

“Huh?” Ye Yixing curled his lips. “Why not?”

“You said the way you looked just now was ugly… so ugly that you didn’t dare to come out and see me, right?” He Yanlu complained petulantly, using a bit of force to pinch the black cat’s ear, not enough to cause pain to Ye Yixing, to vent his dissatisfaction.

“Ye Yixing sighed, ‘I’m making my own bed, and now I have to lie in it.’

“But…I still like your voice,” he chuckled. “So let’s get used to it for now.”

“I hope this isn’t a dream,” He Yanlu suddenly said, holding onto the black cat’s arm and pressing a kiss to his forehead.

“If it is a dream, I won’t let you wake up.”

The two of them, with their sweet and cloying words, fell asleep together.

Some lies are known to be wrong, but we still tell them.

When it comes to deception, people tend to think it’s always bad, but they don’t realize that deception has its own principles and nature. As the saying goes, a bad man deceives you for a moment, but a good man deceives you for a lifetime.

Few people deceive just for the sake of deceiving. The wise pretend to be ignorant and the ignorant are happier than those who know too much.

The next day, Ye Yixing was pulled out of his slumber by He Yanlu.

As he opened his bleary eyes, he saw He Yanlu’s eyes shining like stars as she called out to the black cat, tugging on its tail. “Little Black! Little Black!…”

“…Huh? What is it?” The cat-man had transformed back to his human form only once the night before, and it had left him feeling drained. Now, He Yanlu was pulling on his tail, thinking it was the switch for the lamp!

“…You’re speaking!” He Yanlu exclaimed excitedly.

Ye Yixing couldn’t help but chuckle at how cute He Yanlu was being so early in the morning. “Can you not be so adorably silly, please?”

“How old are you now?” He Yanlu suddenly asked with a fierce expression.

Ye Yixing was startled by his sudden question, “Huh? What?”

“You’re a cat demon, right? You said you’ve been cultivating for over a thousand years! You’re a cat ancestor? Cat grandpa?” He looked at him curiously.

“Uh…I don’t remember exactly, but it’s over a thousand years old…” (= _ =)

“Wow! You’re a thousand-year-old demon, and you still did that to me!” He glared at him.

“…What did I do?” Ye Yixing was completely confused.

“You touched me last night,” said He Yanlu with his starry eyes brimming with tears, and there were two subtle red marks on his cheeks. “You’re just a big perverted cat!”

“…” Why didn’t you call me a perverted monster! Just wait…the first thing I’ll do when I turn back into a human is to truly ‘pervert’ you!

So, if someone is determined to lie to you for a lifetime just to make you happy, would you be willing to accept the deception? Whether pretending to be ignorant or truly ignorant, as long as it ends well and there is no hysterics or digging into the roots of the matter, everything is fine.